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First Time Half Marathoners
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Hi people, The cross bay challenge is sometime in june I think cant quite remember the date but it sounds like a fair challenge! especially the part where you run through waist high water! thats the bit that puts me off!
Anyone know how long the average recovery time from ITBS is? Think I went and buggered up my left one in the most stupid way possible. You know how some times when you are going down a set of stairs, you imagine there is one more than there actually is...I did that on Friday and my leg has been super stiff since then.
Seeing a physio tomorrow...fingers crossed. After 3 months of good solid training, I think I will be absolutely distraught if I had to pull out because of this sort of stupid split second slip up. I hate this waiting - and I think I find 'resting' more stressful than anything else. Grr.
How did you come on with the physio? I managed to do 2miles yesterday in 18 mins, but really i need to slow it right down to get the distances up i just seem to struggle at the beginning.
Going a bit slow around here lately isn't it? Finished my second club session last night and nowhere near as sore as last week so planning to attempt a 1k on my own (with the aid of the bf's Garmin which may end up broken). Went down in the car today to the bus stop with the boyfriend who met up with his training group and nearly got dragged along on a sand dunes session! How do they manage it?! Might try the next one once my legs are working and I've got some more distance
Hi Jo, well done on your 7 miles! What kind of times did you get in the 10k's?
So how's everyone else doing? Just started my fund raising for asthma UK! Now got to start harassing people fun!
Hi, how did you find going to a running club manx.jade? I would love to but just too scared as i am not very confident at speaking to new people! Maybe when I get a bit better at running i will join
Today is a rest day for me so I have been for a nice long fell walk with the dog, and then later on after tea I will do some "toning" exercises which i came across in health and fitness magasine! They are mainly working on arms and core which is good cos my legs are pretty stiff today.
Hi rachael, mine's more a track based athletics club (which is why I only go along to the cross training evenings) but apparently there is a running group which is part of it which I want to try out once I get a bit more distance. Personally, I think you should try emailing your local club saying your ability... most of the other sports clubs I've emailed are more than happy to help (this coming from the person who only turned up to a martial arts class once and stood in the corner!) but I do hear running clubs are quite sociable when you find the right one
Managed my 1k with 8/10 effort so pretty pleased considering there was no-one to push me and my legs have nothing left after yesterday! (Of course, the little tune the Garmin played at the end and it saying 'YOU WON!' was pretty nice too!)
Racheal I think you only need to slow it down for those first couple of miles. By then your body is warmed up so you can push on for better speeds - that is what I have been told anyways. I also find the first 2-3k of any distance I am doing pretty hard as well.
That physio went absolutely mental on my lower body. I'm not used to people getting so intimately close to my legs in the first place, let alone assaulting them that brutally.
As it turns out basically, my legs were just stupidly tight anyways - my stretching (or apparent lack of) is completely inadequate it seems. So my leg muscles were already really tight and then when I went and screwed up on the stairs, it made one muscle hyper contract or something and because of the tightness in my legs, it couldn't relax again.
So he went to town loosening my leg muscles. He was pulling them in directions I didn't think they could even go in. At one point he did say to me 'Your knee might feel like its about to break, but I can assure you it won't'. Charming. Then of course he put a towel on my hip, rested his elbows on top of that and leaned all his body weight into me. He wasn't exactly slender either.
Despite all that hell he put me through, it made a huge difference and my leg has been a lot better. I ordered a foam roller which should be coming within the next few days, and just need to basically work on stretching....alot. He said he will forward on some stretches to me by email, so if/when I get those I will share them here.
I haven't been out running in 5 days now - I NEED to get out tomorrow (subject to stretching of course).
One of my friends dared me to do my half mara wearing this:
http://physiosupplies.com/acatalog/Training_Parachute.html
I would actually absolutely love to use one of those babies in training. Imagine how easy race day would be by comparison when you're not wearing it! Unsurprisingly though, I decided I have enough of a challenge ahead of me for the day without going and making it 10 times harder!
Just thought I'd jump in. I'm about to enter my first half in Liverpool on the 28th March. I used to run a couple of years ago and did some 5ks and a few 10ks but the last 10k I did was awful and put me off running for a long time! Anyway I gingerly took it back up last year and come new year decided to start training for the half.
I've completed 6 weeks training pretty much to plan (I run 4 times a week, including a long run on the weekend) but now seem to be hitting a bit of a wall both mentally and physically! Anyone else feel like that?
I did a 10 mile run on Monday then had a day off then a little 3 miles yesterday....it nearly killed me!! It was uncomfortable all the way, my legs felt wooden and tight and painful, I wanted to stop the whole time and finished completely deflated! I've gone from feeling quite confident about completing the course to wanting to throw the towel in!
Anyone else felt like this and got over it???
JC
I've entered my first HM in September. I don't run at all so I think i'm in for a bit of a shock but am determined to finish and hopefully in a good time.
Fingers crossed!!!!!!!!!!
Hello JC. I'm not an experienced or particularly good runner (more of a trotter!), but I am currently following Mike Gratton's HM training plan from the 2:09 website. I've just copied 2 bits of his Training Notes below - hope it helps, particularly the bit about resting. In his 'get you around' plan, there are rest and recovery weeks, and the longest run is 2 hours (which for me won't be more than 11 miles!!). Maybe a light week would help....
Building-up: Even if you come from a good level of fitness, trying to build-up too quickly will certainly get you injured. Running is a repetitive activity that involves your foot hitting the floor repeatedly with considerable force being transmitted up through the legs and into the lower back. The reason that experienced runners can handle such high levels of training is because they have taken years to get there. Your body adapts slowly to new stresses and a product of regular running is that your bones will harden and become more resilient to the new forces. So fit people beware: your engine (heart & lungs) may find it easy – but after a while your legs won’t.
Rest & Recover: The natural thought is that you get better when you train hard. While that is not altogether untrue, the reality is that your body actually gets fitter while you are resting. Here’s how it works: during hard exercise your body gets tired, waste products build up and energy levels fall as you have used up fuel - you are technically less able than before you started training! If you continued the same level of activity over several days you would become progressively more tired and eventually you will breakdown – either with injury or illness. However, when you stop and rest your body starts to repair the damage, which it will do to a higher level than before as the body recognises a need to adapt to the new stresses that you’re subjecting it to.
tamtam
there's lots of good support about, study some of it and try some of it and work on the bits that suit you
IE - what Trotting Jo has just pasted from Mike Gratton plan
there's lots of time to train between now and September -
little and often, nice and easy,
remembering your nutrician and fluids and rest , hopefully it will all come together nicely
best wishes
Hello all, having difficulty keeping up with the threads that i post in.. heh.
not sure where i last left this thread but on Sunday i ran 6.7 miles and Tuesday i did 4.5 miles. Running tomorrow morning (it's my brothers wedding tomorrow afternoon) and there will be another LSR on Sunday morning as well.
Thinking so far my training for the Liverpool Half is going well.
Slight scratchy throat yesterday was worried i was at the start of some illness, thankfully i woke up this morning and it had subsided.
hi, that would be good 404 to post the stretches cos sometimes I dont think im doing enough stretching, i just do my legs from how i did when i played footy. Them parachute thingys are good fun but they knacker you out, again I used these when playing footy.
Jc nice to hear from you, Im sure everyone feels abit like giving up sometimes, last time I actually did and I regretted it cos if I had stuck to my plans I would have already done two half marathons. However now I am determined to do it, I think sometimes going and talking to people about their training helps with the motivation.
I had a 10 minute easy run scheduled today and as I had a bit of a pain in my knee i thought id run across the school field and on to a well used foot path through a field, where I promtly got chased by a tup, so it became a bit of a speed session for me!! enjoyed it though!
Did my training run on Wednesday & found it really hard. On Thursday morning I woke up with a cold, & now I have a cough which is the sort which hurts every time. It's the third 'bug' I've had this year so I'm a bit fed up!
Bah!
My knee is seriously starting to bum me out. Walking, going up and down stairs and all that is completely normal now thankfully, but as soon as I try to jog or run, it comes right back. I have been getting up close and personal with my foam roller these last couple of days since it arrived and that has made a definite difference (although I do keep chickening out at the most tender part of my leg!), but with 3 weeks to go (to the day!!!) I am really stressing about it.
Got another physio session on Wednesday this week and I have time to get my leg back in order, but to also get the confidence back in my legs? I'm not so sure. Might have to forget aiming for a time and just aim to get around in one piece
Training for my first HM - Shakespeare Half in 9 weeks time. Just in from my first 12 mile training run - very proud of myself as we've an inch of snow up here in York with a few flakes still falling. Consequently, it was really really hard going and I'm not really up to doing much for the rest of the day!!
Hey JC - I really sympathise, I've been getting that of late too. I've been trying to improve my speed and find tempo runs and speed sessions really really hard work and struggle to find the motivation to do them. A short (5 miles) run in place of my long run last weekend and a confidence knocking experience with the uni running club earlier this week (got left for DUST!) didn't help. BUT - how great did it feel after your 10 mile? Of course your recovery run was hard going - I can barely run 10min/mile on mine but can keep up 8.50/mile a couple of days later! Also, look back at how far you've come. I don't know how fit you were to start with, but could you imagine running 10 miles when you started? If you told me even 6 months ago I'd run 17 miles of a weekend for fun I'd have thought you were bonkers. Keep at it!
T
Hello! I'm back! Had a good skiing holiday - lots of exercise so hoefully won't have messed up the schedule toooo much! Trying to catch up with everyone .....
Leedlass - well done on your 7 miles. Definitely worth at lest double bearing in mind the conditions!
Manxjade - good list of races you're accumulating there!!
Hi Croz - welcome along
How did your 10 miles go? I need to fit in a 10 milers this week - every week now is 'the furthest I've ever run...' which is quite scary but exciting. Sounds like you're suffering from nerves. If you've been training regularly and gradualy building up the miles, you'll be fine on the day. Lots of atmosphere & crowds to pull you along. I bet Silverstone's a big race, isn't it? Do you get to run on the race circuit?
Hi Trotting Jo Nice to see you! Glad you've recovered from the Longleat hills now - that last one was a killer! You sound like you have friends like mine. Before my first ever 10k last year, she said she'd run with me (she is much fitter than me, but said she'd done absolutely no training so we should be evenly matched. Well - I didn't see her for dust on the day! Although she did say she couldn't walk for a week afterwards, whereas I was fine -so some small justice there. I'm a week behind on my schedule due to my holidays, so will have to push if I want to make t to 13M before the race. I still think if you've been training properly, on the day you'll be fine.
Croz and Trotting Jo - please feel free to repeat above advice back to me in a few weeks time when I start to PANIC!!!!
404 - OH NO to the knee! Back to the physio for you. Hope its feeling better SOON!!!! Would be good to read about some more stretches - I have 4 very basic ones I do - I guess I don't do enough either.
Hi Racheal. 2 miles is 18 mins is fast to me. I have found the slower I go, the further I can go (as my HR is lower). Its hard changing your pace though! Had to laugh at your impromptu speed session!
Hello JC3345 - well done on entering! Ditto what Trotting Jo says. Its not surprising your legs were tired after a 10M run just a few days before. I keep being told if I can do 10M I can do a HM, so you should be fine (honest!!)
Hi Tamtam - lots of good advice on this website, and training plans available online - happy training & let us know how you get on!
hello jay - glad the training's going well - keep your germs to yourself - too many of them around here!
Anne - you too - keep those germs to yourself!!
hello & welcome TrishS - up to 12 miles already - well done. And in 1" snow as well! I too keep looking back at where I was this time X months ago - very encouraging! This time last year I hadn't even started running!! Good luck with your training!
Hello & welcome Nick as well - sounds like you've got it all nicely in hand for a good time. Know what you mean about it being a bit of a jump - I've only ever run in a very small 10k last year (only 34 runners - I came 34th!) and then I did a bigger 'proper' 10k a few weeks ago to see what a big race is like!
Finally - well done totatola - 2hr 12 is a brilliant time, and within what you were hoping to do - AND in horrible weather - well done! Any top secrets / tips you'd like to pass onto to the rest of us???
Phew - that was a long post!!
Glad u had a good skiing holiday, I went skiing for the first time ever last year and im itching to get back but my bank balance said no!! my scheduled run was 10 mins easy run tnight which i enjoyed but for what ever reason my trainer has started digging in on my left foot, which im gutted about as they were £70!
Totatola, congrats on your first half marathon!! whats your plans next? Another half or another distance race?
Evening All,
Skiing - never appealled as I'm too accident prone and would break bones within minutes!
Been really struggling with bad cold over last 5 days so pleased to complete 6miles easy run on Saturday. Going to get back on track this week all being well.
Bad weather isn't helping much. The lighter nights should improve things but the icy roads and pavements are a nightmare - loads of snow over the weekend and more due this week apparently.
Hey ho, will have to keep up the mileage on the treadmill for the time being.
Thanks for your kind words everyone! Not sure I've got any words of wisdom for you I'm afraid! I just tried to keep going at a pretty steady pace throughout. I used a heart rate monitor in training and in the race so I knew that I could keep plodding on for at least 10.5 miles at a certain heart rate (175-180bpm in my case!) My main aim was just to finish the race without walking and using the heart rate monitor gave me the confidence of knowing that I was going at a rate that I could keep up throughout. Meeting my rough time goal too was just an added bonus! Anyway, enough of my waffle!
As for my future plans, there's a local half marathon in April (7 weeks away) that I've kind of got my eye on but I'm just not sure what to do training wise between now and then - any suggestions? After that I think I'll stick to the odd 10k race throughout the summer.
How's everyone else getting on with their training? Very jealous of the ski trips - I've never been but would love to try it!
I have now completed 5 halfs (Berlin in March will be my 6th) and 1 full and my advice, not that I am an expert by any means, is to enjoy your first and don’t get too despondent if it doesn’t all go to plan, there will be others. One thing to be careful of on race day is don’t race off just because everyone else in front of you has, if you have a plan stick to it. I ran 10 miles in 90mins in training for my first and gave myself a time of 2:15 as I didn’t have anything else to go by – I finished in 2:02. My PB is now 1:54:59 and my goal this year is 1:50
If you are going to use gels on the day try them out way before then, never on the day. I find using PSP22 from SIS the 3 days before a race helps me as well. It is pure carbohydrate and I have found it helps me on the day. It works for me and some might say it is over the top for a half maybe but I came back into running at the age of 53 after a much younger work colleague said I should do the Paris marathon with him!! I also use a recovery drink immediately after a race and another one in the evening if it has been a hard one, again I find it works for me.
Check out the Paris marathon 2010 thread if you want a laugh and at the same time find answers to questions you might have. Don’t be afraid to ask questions on any thread, remember there is no such thing as a silly/dumb question. Good luck to everyone embarking on their first half whenever that may be. Enjoy the day no matter what the weather – someone once said that the hardest part is not finishing it is starting. Oh and don’t forget to smile at the cameras no matter what you look or feel like at the time
!!
One important thing - don’t forget to make a list of what you want to take on the day as well, including dry clothes for after the race!!
I have my first half in Leeds in May. i really find reading these posts a big help (i dont write on them much, more of a lurker), with the advice etc.
At the moment im not doing very well, i find it hard to get motivated, and i really lost my mojo last week. which is annoying cos i want to do it, i really do. but then i sruggle with motivation which makes no sense at all. surely i either want to do it or i dont (!?!?)....
i even bought a Garmin which i love usign and get excited when downloading the info from my runs/walks...
How do you motivate yourself, especially when ti cold out and you have been working all day and all you want to do is go home and snuggle...??
JM - during the winter months I do spinning, rowing and use the cross trainer during the week and run at the weekends. I use the gym work for CV and the runs for time on my feet.
I also got myself an MP3 player and now I find it hard to run without one whilst training.
You will still have time to be ready for Leeds once the clocks go forward and hopefully the weather will pick up as well.
Keep lurking on here and you will get that motivation you are seeking
The biggest step you made was starting running, unfortunately it is all down hill from now on
well i am very pleased with myself as i have been out for a run/walk....was for only 25 mins but its better than nothing, and i did work for that short time...i really do need to build it up though....
thanks for your message dollyg...
well done on your run walk jinky. Its a good start doing run walking and before you know it you run a bit further and walk a bit less then youll be running in no time. I know sometimes its difficult to keep motivated but my best piece of advice is when you get in from work get your kit on and straight out cos if I sit down thats it I cant get out!!
Dolly G thanks for the advice, Your definatley an inspiration for me, I would love to one day complete a marathon, but at the moment that seems a far off dream at the moment! I dont want to know what ill look like during a half marathon on a phImioto cos Im bad enough on a normal photo, i always look like some sort of grinning fool lol!
Hows everyone else going ?
Dolly G - you give me hope!
I came to running a couple of years ago when I hit 40 and it's only this year that I've set to training properly instead of playing at it. Hence the attempt at my first half at Leeds in May.
I'm looking to improve my rather slow times but find it tricky to get it in my head that just cos you got older, doesn't necessarily mean you get slower!
Jinky, don't worry you've still got time. Just stick to your training plan and don't worry if you have to walk a little on the day.
I'm supposed to do 8 miles LSR this weekend...hope this weather improves - we've got snow again!